Wednesday afternoon President Obama addressed students across the country in his 3rd annual back to school speech.  

His message encouraged students to discover their passions, work hard, take risks, and develop their skills.  

The video and transcript of his speech are below.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Everybody, please have a seat.  Well, Madam President, that was an outstanding introduction.  (Laughter.)  We are so proud of Donae for representing this school so well. 

And in addition, I also want to acknowledge your outstanding principal, who has been here for 20 years -- first as a teacher, now as an outstanding principal -- Anita Berger.  Please give her a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  I want to acknowledge, as well, Mayor Gray is here -- the mayor of Washington, D.C. is here.  Please give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  And I also want to thank somebody who is going to go down in history as one of the finest Secretaries of Education that we’ve ever had -- Arne Duncan is here.  (Applause.)   

Now, it is great to be here at Benjamin Banneker High School, one of the best high schools not only in Washington, D.C., but one of the best high schools in the country.  (Applause.)  But we’ve also got students tuning in from all across America.  And so I want to welcome you all to the new school year, although I know that many of you already have been in school for a while.  I know that here at Banneker, you’ve been back at school for a few weeks now.  So everything is starting to settle in, just like for all your peers all across the country.  The fall sports season is underway.  Musicals and marching band routines are starting to shape up, I believe.  And your first big tests and projects are probably just around the corner.  

I know that you’ve also got a great deal going on outside of school.  Your circle of friends might be changing a little bit.  Issues that used to stay confined to hallways or locker rooms are now finding their way onto Facebook and Twitter.  (Laughter.)  Some of your families might also be feeling the strain of the economy.  As many of you know, we’re going through one of the toughest economic times that we’ve gone through in our lifetime -- in my lifetime.  Your lifetime hasn’t been that long.  And so, as a consequence, you might have to pick up an after-school job to help out your family, or maybe you’re babysitting for a younger sibling because mom or dad is working an extra shift. 

So all of you have a lot on your plates.  You guys are growing up faster and interacting with a wider world in a way that old folks like me, frankly, just didn’t have to.  So today, I don’t want to be just another adult who stands up and lectures you like you’re just kids -- because you’re not just kids.  You’re this country’s future.  You’re young leaders.  And whether we fall behind or race ahead as a nation is going to depend in large part on you.  So I want to talk to you a little bit about meeting that responsibility. 

"The right to vote in free and fair elections is one of the fundamental rights underlying the democratic principles of the American republic. 

Everyone who is eligible to vote should be able to do so, but at the same time, such votes should not be diminished or stolen by fraudulently cast ballots or votes by ineligible individuals such as illegal aliens. 

  * What problems exist in the voter registration and election process today? 

  * What threat does voter fraud pose to the integrity of voter registration and elections? 

  * Are federal laws such as the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act 
     sufficient to protect voting rights? 

  * What steps can be taken to improve the security of our elections by election officials, legislators, 
     average citizens, and grassroots organizations? 

Discussing these issues are a journalist who has written extensively about voter fraud cases, a grassroots activist who has worked to correct election problems at the local level, and a former FEC Commissioner and Justice Department lawyer who has enforced federal voting rights laws."

Parents are growing concerned about Washington’s latest power grab. 

National education standards give unelected bureaucrats in Washington the power to choose what children learn instead of parents and local leaders.

According to the Heritage Foundation:

“Americans understand that some distant, unelected bureaucrat in Washington is neither able nor empowered by the Constitution to dictate state education policy. By using federalism as a guiding principle in education – allowing states to set standards and determine how education dollars are spent – children’s needs will best be served, and educational opportunity will flourish.

“Unfortunately, many states have succumbed to pressure to adopt national academic standards. It has happened quietly, threatening local control of education.”  

Your tax dollars pay for the public education system.   Please "like" this post if you believe that schools should be more accountable to parents, and local and state leaders, not the federal government.

Almost everyone agrees that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a nightmare created by the federal government.  Congressional Republicans have tried for months to address the problems created by NCLB intrusive regulations.  

But President Obama disagrees with their reforms and is taking matters into his own hands.  

In "Obama Waives Congress Away," the Heritage Foundation explains why Obama's solution creates more problems than it solves. 

Last night we received a recorded phone announcement from our public school telling us that President Obama will be speaking to all students Wednesday, and letting us know we can opt out of the speech if we wish.  

The recording instructed us to go to Whitehouse.gov to get more information.  I dutifully went to the site to read the speech, as I did last year and the year before.  This year, information on the speech was nowhere to be found. Nor did it show up on any Google searches I tried.

So I took time to call my school and school district, but they couldn’t find information on the speech either.  I guess parents aren't  in the official Whitehouse loop any more. 

This may be the first year I opt my kids out of the speech.  Here are 5 reasons why:  

Armed with great speech writers and a teleprompter, President Obama can be a powerful persuader.  As a first-term senator, he wrested the democratic presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton’s sophisticated political machine and won the hearts of millions of Americans with pretty words and poll-tested phrases.  

A majority of people voted for him, notwithstanding readily available evidence that his words were not congruent with his record.

Now, almost three years into his presidency, many of his former supporters recognize that President Obama is not what they thought he would be.  

But most students don’t follow politics.  They are unaware of Obama’s attack on the Constitution, his usurpation of power, and the unprecedented path of destruction he is leaving behind.  

Following the pattern of progressive politicians everywhere, President Obama uses your money to make promises he can’t keep.  Almost always unrealistic, socialist policies can overwhelm and destroy our economy at this time when the country is already staggering under the burden of unprecedented debt.  

Adults with more experience in the real world usually recognize political posturing and unrealistic promises, but kids may not.  It feels good to believe that government can solve all our problems.  But it’s a lie, and a ploy to gain unprecedented power for politicians and restrict individual liberty of the citizens.

The Constitution clearly defines and limits the role of the federal government.  The states are responsible for education, not the federal government.  

In the 40 plus years that the federal government has been involved in education, the performance of students and the quality of education have decreased dramatically, while costs have skyrocketed.

Every time President Obama promises kids he will make sure they get a good education and says he will provide what they need, he creates an impression that directly conflicts with the Constitution he has sworn to uphold.

Most teachers have been educated in liberal institutions of education.  Almost all teachers are members of the National Education Association (NEA), the official teacher’s union.  

The NEA has already endorsed Obama in the 2012 election, even though the Republican nominee has not been chosen yet.  No surprise there though.  The NEA has never endorsed a Republican candidate for President.

As I remember, previous speeches President Obama gave were good.  But future speeches of his, or of another president, may not be acceptable.  And even if the President’s speech is fine, activist teachers can continue the discussion, infusing political propaganda into the classroom. 

These speeches are setting precedent.  Public schools should not be a forum for government messages, or to favor one political party over another.  Maybe it’s time for us to remind the President of the limits the Constitution places on him. 

Congressman Ron Paul predicted the financial crisis long before other politicians saw it coming.  

In this interview he answers questions about how the free market works and how the United States can get back to a sustainable monetary policy.  He shares a lot of insights in 10 minutes.

Acid rain, the ozone hole, deforestation, global warming....Over the decades, scientists, environmentalists, and politicians intent on controlling human activity have predicted doomsday for earth's inhabitants.  

Now that global warming data is becoming increasingly unpredictable and unpersuasive, advocates are calling this supposedly grave threat, "climate change."  

That's a vague enough term that it's hard to refute, but are people really causing dangerous changes in the climate?  

Scientists have their doubts.  From the beginning, global warming data was questioned.  By the time the following video was made in July 2008, over 30,000 scientists had officially expressed their concern.  Their purpose was to bring greater scrutiny to what they believe is a concocted catastrophe.